The Wilmingtonian., 1887-01-22
DefOrmities which May be Avoided
Position of the child During sIeep.

beiopmiHeh hhtch May be Avoided
Position of the child During sleep.
One of the things oil the utmost Importance
If a mother would have her children grow up
symmetrical in form is to watch her baby
with unceasing vigilance during his sleep.
One able physician declares that to Careless
ness upon this point is due m lst of the short
ness of life not produced by actual disease.
Mote your child well, said he to a young
mother, when he is asleep, if you would
have him grow up straight. You will fad
that from your own habit of most convent
emily holding him on one particular side that
ne will soon grow to prefer TO lie upon one
side only.
81 have one patient who is able to nurse
her child only from the right breast, the left
one having gathered and 80 lost the milk,
and the left side of that baby's face is per.
ceptibly smaller than the right. because from
force of habit he has grown to prefer to lie
upon his left side, aud she has ignorautry
permitted him to do so.
you will find, too that during his sleep
he will draw habitually Que eg,iflying upon
one side, the other leg if lying upon the
other, Turn him often aud straighteu h 8
legs This will not only couduce greatly to
his comfort but much TO your own, for fire.
quently, when baby stirs aud seems inclin-
ed to wake, it is because the soft little limbs
have grown tired from lying in one position.
Turn him over-not too gently, for by this
very caution you will be most likely to wax
en- him-draw down his leg, shake and
smooth his skirts, give him pat aud he is
otf for anoth II hours nar."
Indeed, have known blb'es treated in
t1is way to sleep along for five or six hours
at stretch, when otherwise they would
have been up pc haps in halt hour, with
only half hour nap, This process can be i, :
peated with safety just so long as the baby
will stay asleep. Very often babies waken
not because they wish to rouse at all, but be-
cause they want to tlrn over and do not
know how to accomplish it.
1t stands 10 reason that child habitually
lying upon one tide should habtnally draw
up one particular leg, thus producing, while
;he bones are soft aud forming, a lesser or
greater difference in length, and next, chill
| dren should be put into short clothes lust as
soon as practicable, aud should not at any
line be forced to wear excessively long ones.
The weight of such garments is very detri-
mental to the growth and and development OF
he lower limbs. These (the lower limbs)
should be well protected. bat to put upon a
little baby two or three skirts, four or five
times as long as the little fellow himself and
keep them in place by pinning them SO tight
around him that he cannot breathe, is not
protection, it is cruelty.
The garments should be so short as to in
sure at least moderate degree of freedom
OF action. 1t will do the baby good to 90
naked little while each day, to kick aud
fence at his own sweat will. Let the room
be warm, hot il you choose, but-let the
baby kick. Not only will his lower limbs bu
developed by this freedom of ac zion, but his
lungs will be benefited, his chest be expand
ed and his muscles be strengthened in all
parts Of his body.
Let us now pass on to the time when slight
defects, either created Though ignorance or
inborn, have taken hold Of the system.
A mother notices that her four-year.old
daughter is acquiring habit of holding her